The Reverse Product Template

The following is a template for writing out a project proposal, specifically for pre-product market fit companies. THe goal is to get more information before you build anything.

A Reverse Product is where you build everything but the product itself. You build the sales funnel, customer acquisition channel, and more but you hold off for as long as possible building the product itself.

The goal is that you build a great business.

Project Name

  • Title: Name your project in a concise manner.
  • Target Audience: Define who this is for and the main benefit they'll gain. (One sentence.)

Truth: What's Happening on the Ground?

  • Describe the main challenge or issue this project aims to address.
  • Show that you've done your market research and aren't just totally wasting your own time by doing something in this domain. What's the origin of the idea?

Assertions: How Are We Going to Change Things?

Detail your solution and how it tackles the problem. If needed, use sub-points for clarity.

How Am I Going to Make Change? What's the Core Proposal?

How Do We Start / Get over Cold Stat?

Alternatives: what Happens if Assertions Don't Pan Out? What Are the Failure Scenarios?

People

Why Me? Why Am I Capable of Delivering on This? Why Am I Differentiated?

Who Are We Serving? Who Are the Champions?

Money

  • What's it going to take to get there?
  • How is this going to make money? What's the flywheel we're building?

Next Steps

Provide a brief guide on how to proceed or where to get more information. How am I going to test this idea? How am I going to de-risk it and understand whether or not there's something I can do here to test things out.

FAQ - Coming from an Iteration

This will be something that I fill out as I go through iterations of the idea. I'll fill out ideas as it gets more "real".

Internal FAQ

  • Market Insight:
    • How big is the target market?
    • How many potential users face this problem?
    • What's the potential revenue?
  • Financial Overview:
    • Projected costs and ROI?
    • What's the pricing strategy?
  • Dependencies: List any dependencies or prerequisites for this project.

External FAQ

  • List common questions your target audience might have.
  • This could include functionality, benefits, comparisons with similar solutions, etc.